Metropolitan Opera

A map of the potential surface rail line, from Next New York, via Curbed

Brooklyn and Queens could be getting a streetcar or light rail line. The line might run from Astoria to Sunset Park, roughly tracing the path of the East River, connecting waterfront areas where new construction is booming. This would be great news for people who live or work in neighborhoods like Red Hook or DUMBO, which have limited subway access to the rest of Long Island. One suggestion for planners: go with fully-dedicated right-of-way light rail. Can you imagine a streetcar trying to navigate New York City’s double parked cars or gridlock? [Capital]

A lawsuit has been filed against fashion designer Jeremy Scott and Moschino by Detroit graffiti artist Joseph Tierney (AKA Rime). The lawsuit alleges Scott copied a 2012 artwork Rime completed for The Seventh Letter art organization onto pieces in Moschino’s Fall/Winter 2015 collection. The lawsuit even goes as far as to blame Katy Perry’s Met Ball look, wearing a piece resembling Rime’s work, which got the Moschino muse on a number of “worst dressed” lists: “[Rime’s] credibility as a graffiti artist was compromised by inclusion in such a crass and commercial publicity stunt.” [Vogue UK]

Umm el-Fahem Gallery is thriving—despite being located in an impoverished, segregated Arab Israeli town where it must censor nudity or political content. The unlikely success story is attributed to curator Said Abu Shakra’s strategies to make the gallery more accessible to the town’s poor residents and the neighborhood more accessible to art audiences. [Forward]

“I needed to know if they had ever been accused of cultural appropriation, if they had ever had models walk down the runway in feathers or headdresses. I needed to find out what their environmental track record.” The inside story on Valentino’s “respectful” collaboration with Métis artist Christi Belcourt — creating fabric samples inspired by her National Gallery of Canada-owned painting, Water Song, for its recent haute couture collection — suggests fashion houses are finally realizing misrepresentation and cultural appropriation are bad business. [The Globe and Mail]

Are artist residencies always worth it? Not always. Artist Jeriah Hildwine says it’s a personal decision, but dedicates at least 4000 words in this two part series to helping readers figure it out. [Bad at Sports, pt 1, pt 2]

The New York Times picks up Hyperallergic’s story on how The Metropolitan Opera will launch a new production of Verdi’s “Otello” next month without using black face, as has been traditional for over a century. Good on them. [The New York Times]

The recently-called Canadian federal election promises a number of changes: the chance to finally get Stephen Harper out of office, whose right-wing agenda in the past ten years have led to a stellar environmental record that includes withdrawing Canada from the Kyoto Protocol and silencing scientists working on federally-funded research. So consider this the first piece of wearable #elxn42 protest: a “My Prime Minister Embarrasses Me” tote bag by Toronto-based artist Pascal Paquette. [Art Metropole]

“There’s absolutely no sign that says kids aren’t supposed to climb on it!”—an adorable controversy is brewing after a 7 year old boy trapped himself in a piece of public art in Hilton Head, NC. [WJCL Savannah]

Related: Here’s a short list of public art that people have hated. [Financial Times]

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has released a study that looks at diversity in the staffing of museums. The results are predictably shitty—white people dominate the staffing in nearly every field but low level security positions—but there is a sliver of hope. As a country we’re more ethnically diverse than we were in the 1930’s so the hiring pool is wider. [Hyperallergic]

Hasso Plattner, a German billionaire, is threatening to move his extensive art collection out of Germany in protest of new legislation that places limits on the export of “cultural treasures”. He had planned to donate his collection to The Barberini Museum—a reconstruction of an 18th century palace in Potsdam that Plattner commissioned. Now, he is debating a new museum in Silicon Valley. His rationale: Germany’s new restrictions on exporting artwork and antiquities would make it harder for The Barberini Museum to sell individual pieces from his collection to raise funds. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? [artnet News]

People are engaging in art online in higher numbers than ever before, but are they visiting galleries and attending arts events? A fascinating 78 page study published by the NEA, Age and Arts Participation: A Case Against Demographic Destiny, tracks among other things the decline of “the omnivore”, a demographic known for its interest in […]